Synopsis

"One of the great strengths of Arctic Voices is that it shows how Alaska and the Arctic are tied to the places where most of us live. In this impassioned book, Banerjee shows a situation so serious that it has created a movement, where 'voices of resistance are gathering, are getting louder and louder.' May his heartfelt efforts magnify them. The climate changes that are coming have hit soon and hard in the Arctic, and their consequences may be starkest there."–Ian Frazier, The New York Review of Books

A pristine environment of ecological richness and biodiversity. Home to generations of indigenous people for thousands of years. The location of vast quantities of oil, natural gas and coal. Largely uninhabited and long at the margins of global affairs, in the last decade Arctic Alaska has quickly become the most contested land in recent US history.

World-renowned photographer, writer, and activist Subhankar Banerjee brings together first-person narratives from more than thirty prominent activists, writers, and researchers who address issues of climate change, resource war, and human rights with stunning urgency and groundbreaking research. From Gwich'in activist Sarah James's impassioned appeal, "We Are the Ones Who Have Everything to Lose," during the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen in 2009 to an original piece by acclaimed historian Dan O'Neill about his recent trips to the Yukon Flats fish camps, Arctic Voices is a window into a remarkable region.

About Subhankar Banerjee

Over the past decade SUBHANKAR BANERJEE has been a leading international voice on issues of arctic conservation, indigenous human rights, resource development, and climate change. In 2003 he publishedArctic National Wildlife Refuge, a photo book of his fourteen-month long journey in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Through a Lannan Foundation grant, 10,000 copies of the book were donated to libraries and policy makers across the country. In 2010 Banerjee founded www.climatestorytellers.org and in 2011 he was appointed Director's Visitor at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton Unversity.

Praise

Praise

"The Earth and her beings have been speaking. But we failed to listen. Arctic Voices compels us to listen. We will stay deaf at our peril."—Vandana Shiva, founder of Navdanya and author of Staying Alive: Women, Ecology and Development

"A marvelous work, a marvelous land—hear the voices that call us to save these jewels of our planet."—James E. Hansen, director of NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and author of Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity

"One of the great strengths of Arctic Voices is that it shows how Alaska and the Arctic are tied to the places where most of us live. In this impassioned book, Banerjee shows a situation so serious that it has created a movement, where 'voices of resistance are gathering, are getting louder and louder.' May his heartfelt efforts magnify them."—Ian Frazier, The New York Review of Books

“Part of our failure to recognise the dangers at stake is that the Arctic still tends to be perceived as a big barren desert of ice, apolitical and disconnected from our political concerns, up for grabs. The book Arctic Voices: Resistance at the Tipping Point offers an encyclopedic approach to reframe such understandings.”—Manuela Picq, Al Jazeera

“Their reverence for, and connection to, the earth—its animals, water, mountains and land—is beautifully described in Arctic Voices, and each essay is as much a prayer as a call to activism.”—Eleanor J. Bader, Truthout

"Just in time, then, comes Banerjee's latest volume, Arctic Voices, a wakeup call from 39 artists, writers, biologists, Alaska Natives and activists [...] the eyewitness accounts and reports in Arctic Voices question the wisdom of relying on fossil fuel fixes, urging restraint in our approach to the nation's last great wilderness area."—Michael Engelhard, High Country News

"Right from the beginning I’m emotionally connected with this book [...]"—The Environmental Blog